Magazines for Boys, Magazines for Girls: More of the Same Stereotypes

Abstract: In two studies, we investigated the prevalence of gender stereotypes in print magazines targeted at 2- to 9-year-olds, analyzing three crucial and distinct aspects of children’s magazines: the front cover, the magazine content, and featured activities. Study 1 focused on the front covers of 106 children’s print magazines aimed at audiences of either girls, boys, or both boys and girls. Content analyses revealed that magazines aimed solely at boys or girls displayed gender-stereotypic colors and more same- than other-gender characters. Front covers aimed at girls contained no speaking characters and, compared to front covers aimed at boys, displayed more words related to appearance. 

Study 2 analyzed the content of 42 magazine issues. Magazines aimed at girls were most likely to incorporate the themes of fashion and home, to instruct the reader to ask for an adult’s help with an activity, and less likely to include activities labeled as educational than were magazines aimed at boys or both girls and boys. In contrast, magazines aimed at boys were most likely to incorporate the theme of jobs. Overall, findings suggest that gender stereotypical messages are embedded throughout young children’s magazines, which are tailored in their style and content based on their target audience. (Spinner, Cameron & Tenenbaum, 2023)

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- Spinner, L., Cameron, L., & Tenenbaum, H. R. (2023). Gender stereotypes in young children’s magazines. Mass Communication & Society, 26(1), 147–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2022.2052902 

- photograph (Clive and Lisa, 1971), (c) Museums Victoria Collections, via

Boys & Girls & Reading

According to the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, boys have lower reading skills than girls by the end of primary school. This gap has been reported for more than twenty years with "girls outperforming boys in 51 of the 57 participating education systems, with an average difference of 19 points". In addition, boys report less enjoyment of reading; 46% of girls say they like reading compared to only 37% of boys enjoying reading (via).

photogrpah by Vivian Maier via

One Every 11 Minutes

According to UN Women, in 2021 alone, about 45,000 women and girls were killed by a male relative, i.e., one every eleven minutes (via).

photograph by Weegee via

But Against the System

"I do not fight against men, but against the system that is sexist."

Elfriede Jelinek

photograph via

Escaramuza. By Constance Jaeggi.

"Historically Charrería, which is the national sport of Mexico, was predominantly male. Charrería emerged from early Mexican cattle ranching activities and was eventually refined and formalized during the post-revolutionary era as a romantic, nationalist expression of ‘lo mexicano’ (Mexicanness). It is similar in many ways to American rodeo in its variety of competitive equestrian activities. Women, however, were not seen participating on horseback until the 1950s when they were finally brought into the sport as riders.

A discipline was invented for female participants called ‘Escaramuza,’ consisting of all-female precision horse riding teams who execute exacting maneuvers while riding sidesaddle at high speed and wearing traditional Mexican attire. The costumes and synchronized patterns they perform were inspired by the Soldadera or Adelita, the women who fought in the Mexican Revolution between 1910-1920. To this day, the events within Charrería remain heavily gender segregated. A charreada lasts up to three hours but the portion dedicated to Escaramuza makes up for three to five minutes of those three hours, so there is still a large discrepancy between the representation of genders within the sport.

Escaramuza is wide-spread in Mexico of course, and becoming increasingly established in the United States as Charrería keeps growing. Initially, I was drawn to the visuals. The dresses are colorful and intricate, and the performance is elegant and powerful, like a ballet on horseback. But it is the stories of the women I met that really captivated me. The dedication that they have for the sport and their drive to uphold this tradition is admirable. In Mexico, Charrería tends to be a sport practiced by the wealthy, while many of the charros and charras in the US work hard to be able to afford the costs associated with owning and competing with horses. A lot of the women I met are full time students, or have full time jobs, sometimes multiple jobs and are raising children.

The sport is also dangerous. The women ride side saddle in heavy, hand-crafted dresses. A team consists of eight riders, and they perform patterns, criss-crossing each other at high speed. Riding side-saddle is extremely difficult as you only have good control over one side of the horse. There is a narrative around immigration and the role it plays in the development of the sport in the US, shaped by this feeling that many of the riders expressed to me of “not feeling Mexican enough when traveling to Mexico, but not feeling American enough at home either.” 

Then there are the gender relations. Many riders expressed frustration regarding their inability to vote within the Charrería governing association, and the strictness of the dress rules they are subjected to, which is not the case for the disciplines practiced by the men. And finally, the parallels with the women who fought in the Mexican Revolution, the lack of historical research on their role, how they were remembered through time. Essentially, it felt like such a richly layered story, there was so much unpacking to do that I couldn’t look away. 

The women I photographed are from all around the US. They are for the most part first, second, third, fourth and fifth generation Americans. As I got to know these women personally, I became aware of the importance of their oral histories. I needed to bring their voices back into the work somehow. I started interviewing teams as I went. I met teams from California, Texas, Washington, Illinois, Iowa and Colorado, recording their stories as I photographed them. I tried to understand how they thought of their position in Charrería, what Escaramuza meant to them and how they wanted to be seen, which influenced the way I photographed them. I am continuing the project as I expand the body of work for an upcoming book, and attempting to cover as many of the US states as possible. 

Escaramuza translates to ‘skirmish’ in English, inspired by the image of the soldaderas sent into battle before the men to kick up dust and distract the opposing side. Women of course played a much more significant role than simple distraction during this complex and destructive civil war. They were activists in feminist movements, but a much larger number of women of rural and lower urban classes found themselves caught up in the struggle and had no choice but to be actively involved, whether it was as camp followers and caretakers for the soldiers, or as women who took up arms. 

I see parallels between the soldaderas’ contribution to the advancement of women’s emancipation in Mexico and the Escaramuzas I met who are pushing back on the machismo in their sport. Especially for the US-based Escaramuzas growing up in blended cultures. The image of the soldadera is a powerful historical example and reference point. It means that Escaramuza is much more than a way to connect with contemporary Mexican traditions. It also connects these women to their history, the history of their people and of women in their culture. It gives women a certain image of strength to refer to.  

One of the riders told me that she wanted to inspire other young women by showing them that they too could ride horses, be fierce and competitive and that they too could have a place in Charreria. Soldaderas provide evidence of women defying social expectations, and that has an impact. 

(...) Escaramuza is an example of cultural preservation in an era where globalization often dilutes local traditions; a way of keeping customs and stories of past generations alive by passing down skills and technique from one generation to the next. It is a celebration of heritage. It is also a source of personal empowerment for many of the women involved, providing a strong sense of identity and pride and challenging traditional gender roles by showcasing women as skilled equestrians and leaders in their communities. This empowerment is not only personal but also communal, as it helps redefine gender norms within a cultural context."

Constance Jaeggi

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photographs by Constance Jaeggi via and via and via 

Men Untitled. By Carolyn Drake.

"I worked on the periphery of my subject for almost a year before turning to face it directly. Many months were spent scouting locations, arranging portrait sessions, searching for props, and hiring assistants before I decided that what I really needed was to get the men in front of me to take off their clothes. 

Despite having existed among them for half a century, I cannot claim to be comfortable around male bodies. The truth is, the male body is not a subject that I’ve ever been encouraged scrutinize the way we do women’s bodies. It’s as though the act of looking at men is inherently dangerous. Asking the men to remove their clothing introduced a degree of risk that propelled my fifty-year-old imagination even as sexual desire continued to elude it. 

Mostly, I photographed men who were older than me. Maybe I was more interested in seeing masculinity in decline than admiring male prowess. Or maybe older men are more visibly vulnerable, making me more empathetic towards them. Some of them unveiled their bodies with adventurous curiosity; others were willing to partly reveal themselves, letting go of their reservations as an act of generosity. Some got an erection and stood still in front of me, wondering where to direct their gaze. One person kept bending over to make sure I captured a view of his anus. 

Once I started stripping away the clothing and props and scenery, what I was left with was a body alive in time, like mine. Its authority dissolved when I took the liberty to look."

Carolyn Drake

"I really wanted to expose the body and demean it and play with the idea of seeing how far I could push men, even if they didn’t want to."

Carolyn Drake

"I realized that it was also a healing exercise for my psyche. I channeled a lot of pent-up anger to make the work, drawing from repeated dealings with misogyny in life and politics, including the restriction of women’s rights to abortion, over which I had no control."

Carolyn Drake

"I am a 52-year-old woman who has internalized a lot of personal and political rage over the years, most recently in response to the #MeToo movement and the U.S. Supreme Court decision on abortion rights. My hormonal impulses are also shifting. I wanted to channel all that onto the men: how can I subjugate the male body, and how will that look and feel to me? 

But on the other hand, photography for me is a way of connecting and empathizing with other people. So as I played with how it felt to look down on men and to mangle and twist and direct their bodies, I also found tenderness and began to see the ways they were fragile, and not at all fulfilling masculine stereotypes. 

I also wanted to look at the myths connected to masculine ideals, but without perpetuating them. The images are constructed, posed. I did not want to insinuate any of this as natural, so the feeling of staging and performance was important to me.

One of the main differences in the way I approached the men as photographic subjects is that I wanted to expose the vulnerability of their bodies and lay them bare. (...)

Wallace is a character I got to know pretty well over many photo shoots. Before he passed away in 2022, he ran a motorcycle club next to his house, and the inside, notably, was wallpapered floor to ceiling and all over the ceiling with centerfolds from Penthouse and Playboy magazines that he had collected over the years. This was always something on my mind when I visited his house to photograph him, so when one day he showed me an old picture he had taken of an ex-girlfriend, I knew I wanted to ask him if he would be willing to pose for me in the same position. He agreed to let me photograph him hanging upside down from a hook like a piece of meat only if I would also, and it felt natural for me to agree to it. What I chose not to do is publish the image he took of me. That final decision of what to show is where my power resides. This is about me authoring male bodies, not the reverse.

(...) The men weren’t all cis, actually, but I didn’t distinguish one way or another in the image titles. It’s not a project about youth culture and the diversification of gender identities. It’s about my feelings toward old guard gender structures whose power remains entrenched, and about how I too relate to individual people on that spectrum. Part of why I worked mostly with older men was that I wanted to see masculine strength in decline.

(...)

I had to let myself feel two things at once while making this project — anger I had boxed in and the empathy needed to make human portraits. One of the things they remind you in psychotherapy is that contradictory feelings can coexist. 

Regarding geography, the American South is where I began, but I eventually decided that the project is not about a particular region. It’s about an American brand of patriarchy and its strange attachment to white penises."

Carolyn Drake

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photographs via and via and via 

Drummies

London-based, South African photographer Alice Mann started her series "Drummies" after reading a newspaper article about drum majorettes in 2017. Mann photographed eleven teams (school teams and club teams) in two provinces in South Africa. Some of the girls are from underprivileged backgrounds. To them, being a drum majorett means a lot since, as Mann notices, it can open doors (via)

“As a young, white, South African photographer, I am very aware of my position when making photographic work, and I always try to let this awareness affect my process. The ways that images have been used in South Africa, as a tool of colonialism, as a tool of apartheid, has a very violent history. So it is important to me that I can create work that empowers and elevates the people I work with. Particularly as I am often working with women, and with younger people, I need to ensure that the resulting images are challenging the representation of these individuals as victims.”
Alice Mann

“I’m interested in examining the relationship between community versus individual identity; how does a sense of belonging affect the way we perceive ourselves? I think wanting to belong is something that everyone identifies with, and this is an idea I return to often in my work… I’m fascinated by the way that feeling a part of something can reinforce an individual’s sense of self.”
Alice Mann

“The sport is a very empowering one for young women to be involved in. You can see how being part of the team creates a powerful sense of belonging and is a safe female space where the girls are very supportive of each other. There are a lot of accolades associated with being a drum majorette, and the discipline and hard work required says a lot about the person who can commit and put in the hours. The girls feel very proud to be majorettes, and this pride is evident.”
Alice Mann

“Photographs are so ubiquitous, and these images have such a powerful role to play. As an image-maker, I wanted to contribute in a way that might prompt people to re-examine the set ideas we have, because of what we are used to seeing,”
Alice Mann

photographs by Alice Mann via

Not the Usual Gender Pay Gap

According to top modelling agent Elizabeth Rose, male models are paid 75% less than female models. While all the top ten female models make millions, only the top three male models make over a million.

The world's highest paid female model made 35 million pounds in 2015 (source Forbes), the highest paid male model made 1.15 million pounds in 2013 (the years compared differ because there was no data compiled for male model incomes in 2015). The discrepency is not only there when it comes to top models. In an interview (2016), Rose mentions: "I had a brief today that came in and it was 'male model, [pay] £1,500', and the female model was £5,000, for the same usage.'" 

An inverse gender pay gap might come as a surprise. What is little surprising are the traditional ageist patterns prevalent in the industry. Female models do make more money. However, they are discriminated against based on their age at an earlier stage. Men have a longer career path and make the most when they are in their thirties - when a great many female models seem to be sent into retirement (via and via).

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photograph of Capucine via

Domestic Violence and Gender in Numbers

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (as of 2023), 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men experience physical violence at some point during their lifetimes. Intimate partners stalk 6 in 10 female and 4 in 10 male victims. 1 in 5 women and 1% to 2% of men experience attempted or completed rape at some point in their lives.

It is estimated that 1.5 million intimate partner female rapes and physical assaults occur every year (vs 800.000 male assaults annually). Intimate partner violence has decreased by more than 60%, from 10 victimisations per 1.000 persons to 4 per 1.000 (n = persons aged 12 or older) (via).

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photograph via

Can I Keep My Job? Adult Children Caring for their Elderly Parents

In the 1970s, studies started showing to what extent public services can support parents when it comes to combining caring for their children with participation in employment. Only in the 1990s did researchers begin to focus on the impact adult children's caring for their elderly parents can have on their participation in the labour market. According to research, the need (or wish) to care for older parents can lead to adult children losing their jobs, more absence from work, increased use of part-time work or more difficulty concentrating at work (due to being worried) and negative effects on productivity, promotion and salary.

Adult children are important care providers, most of the non-professional care is provided by daughters of older people. In other words, a great many women "in their fifties and sixties are now both working and having to care for their parents", hence "more likely than men to withdraw completely from the labour market" or work fewer hours - either because they need the time to care for the parent(s) or because of health problems resulting from attempts to combine care work with job. "Public expenditures on eldercare appear to affect both intergenerational support and female labour market participation."

Gautun and Brett (2017) investigated the connection between adult children's attendance at work and public care services for older people. 

We test the hypothesis that the detrimental effect on attendance at work of having an older parent in need of care is moderated (reduced) by the parent’s use of a public nursing homes, possibly also by home care services.

The study was carried out in Norway (n = 529, employees aged 45 to 65). A majority of respondents (80%) had provided support to their parent(s) in mostly practical form, e.g. purchases or transportation. 16% ha given nursing assistance. 58% of those reporting to have helped their parent(s) during the past year said that it was difficult to combine care and work. 

The results are interesting and probably not extremely surprising:

Institutional care for older people in need of care (i.e. nursing homes) was associated with improved work attendance among their children—their daughters in particular. Data also indicated a moderating effect: the link between the parents’ reduced health and reduced work attendance among the children was weaker if the parent lived in a nursing home. However, the results were very different for home-based care: data indicated no positive effects on adult children’s work attendance when parents received non-institutionalised care of this kind. Overall, the results suggest that extending public care service to older people can improve their children’s ability to combine work with care for parents. However, this effect seems to require the high level of care commonly provided by nursing homes. Thus, the current trend towards de-institutionalising care in Europe (and Norway in particular) might hamper work attendance among care-giving adult children, women in particular. Home care services to older people probably need to be extended if they are intended as a real alternative to institutional care.

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- Gautun, H. & Brett, C. (2017). Caring too much? Lack of public services to older people reduces attendance at work among their children. European Journal of Ageing, 14, 155-166,, link
- photograph by Dorothea Lange (1938) via

Pretty, Please. By Allison Morris

"This series of self portraits intends to emphasize and question the outlandish and nonsensical nature of 'feminine' objects and traditions - everything from hairstyles to body modification - the purpose of which is to shape and alter the feminine body, and maintain a firm grasp on an otherwise fleeting youth. Through the ironic and overindulgent use of these oddities, I aim to draw attention to their absurdity and the barrier they create between the person subscribing to them, and the outside world. This work intends to draw attention to these objects in a humorous and satirical way, allowing us to identify the absurd notion of the ideal female."
Allison Morris

photographs via 

Female Heads of State and Government in (Small) Numbers

According to a Pew Research Center analysis (as of March 2023), women serve as head of government in 13 of the 193 member states of the United Nations. In nine of these 13 countries, the current leader is the first female head of state or government, seven of the 13 countries are in Europe. Fewer than a third of UN countries have ever had a woman leader (via).

- More: List of female heads of state and government, link
- photograph via

Women and Smoking Stigma in South Korea

Generally speaking, fewer women smoke than men. There are however, cultural and regional variations and greater gender differences are found in South Korea, Indonesia, and China, compared to Europe and the United States. South Korea, for instance, has the highest male smoking rate and the lowest female smoking rate of all (OECD) countries (Park et al., 2014). The World Health Organization (2017) estimates that 40% to 50% of men and 4% to 8% of women in Korea smoke; according to the OECD (2015) it is 31.3& of males and 3.4% of females (Gunter et al., 2020). Gender is a factor.

Women may encounter negative social attitudes toward women's smoking. This stigma can have an impact on their smoking cessation motivation and concealment (David et al., 2024). Korean women, for instance, underreport their smoking activity because of the stigmatisation. This stigma may prevent many Korean woman from smoking (Woo, 2018). Using biological indicators (urinary cotitine concentration), others come to the conclusion that the "actual female smoking rate is significantly highere than official records state" and that the social desirability bias produces results that underestimate the number of female smokers (Park et al., 2014).

This study shows that the actual female smoking rate is significantly higher than that reported officially, but also that the gap is decreasing steadily. Females exhibited a higher rate of false responses, which resulted in an underestimation of the female smoking rate. (Park et al., 2014)

Concealment is not really surprising given harsh reactions might be possible as the following two anecdotes imply:

"I was a bit tipsy and felt like a puff. After I lit the cigarette, a random middle-aged man came up to me and started shouting as if I had done something very bad. He said, ‘I will slap your face if you don't throw your cigarette away right now.' He called me ‘dirty little woman.'" (Kim, 26)

"When I was smoking outside, an old man shouted at me how dare I, a female, smoke there. People say the social atmosphere about female smoking has changed but this kind of thing still happens. Men cannot understand how scared women get in those situations." (Lee, 33)

In South Korea, women use heated tobacco products for different reasons than men do, i.e., to avoid the stimga associated with female smoking while men use them to avoid family members putting pressure on them to stop smoking (Kwanwook et al., 2020)

As has been well-established by previous studies, the smell of cigarettes was the main reason for using HTP for both male and female users. Nevertheless, there was a gender difference in the cause for concern about the smell of cigarettes, especially regarding the person(s) to whom participants thought the smell was an issue. Males tended to identify smell as a problem when it came to their familial responsibilities with their wives and children. Many participants felt guilty for using cigarettes due to their harmfulness to health and exposing their family members to secondhand smoke. For these participants, these feelings, usually recognised, and revived by the very smell of tobacco, could be reduced through the use of HTPs with a relatively low odour. Therefore, males were more concerned with the ‘physical’ characteristics of the cigarette smell as a reminder of the harmfulness of tobacco. 

‘When I got married, my wife knew that I was a smoker and did not care too much. But when she got pregnant, she kept telling me, “Your body smells of cigarettes. Don’t come near, it’s bad for a child”. She told me a lot to stop smoking. So, I thought about various ways, and finally bought IQOS which was easily available. I think it would be better to choose one that doesn’t smell to my family.’ (Male, 39 years) 

Unlike the male participants, female participants were more interested in the ‘socio-cultural’ rather than physical characteristics of the tobacco smell. In other words, women were conscious that their tobacco smell would expose their smoking habit in a patriarchal society where female smoking is still a highly stigmatised activity, particularly in the workplace. Therefore, unlike men, they were reluctant to disclose their smoking habit. In particular, women with children were extremely vigilant about concealing such socially unacceptable behaviour as smoking, when among other parents and their children’s teachers, because of the perception that they should be a morally upright ‘agi-eomma’ (a baby’s mother). For these reasons, women chose HTPs to maintain their social status as a righteous working woman or mother.  

‘I should not let my colleagues in the company notice the smell from my smoking. Since my sister introduced me to “lil”, I have used it while working and smoked CCs at home.’ (Female, 22 years)  

‘For me, [the] IQOS has solved every interpersonal problem caused by the smelly cigarette. Now I have been able to avoid uncomfortable gazes, [I am] liberated from the smell, and [I have] improved interpersonal relationships with my children’s teachers or other parents. I used to be unable to smoke openly because I was given kind of a name tag called “agi-eomma” (a baby’s mother).’ (Female, 42 years) (Kwanwook et al., 2020)

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- David, J.-C., Fonte, D., Sutter-Dallary, A.-L., Auriacombe, M., Serre, F., Rascle, N. & Loyal, D. (2024). The stigma of smoking among women: A systematic review. Social Sciene & Medicine, 340, 116-491. Korean Journal of Family Medicine, 41(3)
- Gunter, R., Szeto, E., Jeong, S.-H., Suh, S. & Waters, A. J. (2020). Cigarette Smoking in South Korea: A Narrative Review. 
-  Kwanwook Kim, Jinyoung Kim, Hong-Jun Cho (2020). Gendered factors for heated tobacco product use: Focus group interviews with Korean adults. Tobacco Induced Diseases, 18(43), link
- Myung Bae Park, Chun-Bae Kim,corresponding author Eun Woo Nam & Kyeong Soo Hong (2014). Does South Korea have hidden female smokers: discrepancies in smoking rates between self-reports and urinary cotinine level. BMC Womens Health, 14(156), link
- Woo, C. (2018). Gendered Stigma Management among Young Adult Women Smokers in South Korea. Sociological Perspectives, 61(3), link
- photograph by Nina Ahn via

Substance Use: Men vs Women

The American Addiction Centers point out some gender differences in connection with the consumption of illegal drugs. For instance, men are more likely to die of overdose and misuse of prescription than women. Women are more susceptible to craving and relapse. Women are also less likely to inject heroin than men and show the tendency to use smaller amounts in shorter intervals. Those women who do inject heroin, however, are more likely to additionally use prescrption drugs than men and are more at risk of dying from heroin overdose. Women also seem to begin using cocaine sooner and in larger amounts than men. 

Similarly, women start methamphetamine use earlier than men and become comparably more dependent on the substance. Fewer women than men die from prescription opioid overdoses, a trend that seems to be changing since death rates for women increased rapidly. Men are less likely to misuse prescription opioids to self-treat for reasons such as anxiety or stress while women are more likely to take them without a prescription to cope with pain. Generally, the risk of developing a substance use disorder is the same for both genders (via).

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photograph (Man in drug den, Durban, 1985) by Omar Badsha via

Belgium, Country of Hair Cut Equality

According to a poll (UK, 2020), women pay more than twice as much for their haircuts than men. Some women tried to make savings by going to a male barbers but were turned away. 40% of men pay between £10 and 14.99 for their hair cut, 29% between £5 and 9.99, 15% between £15 and 19.99. The price range for women is much wider. The most common range is £20 to 24.99, paid by only 13% of women. The proportions for the ranges £10 to 14.99 and £30 to 34.99 are similar. While only 15% of men pay £15 or more, 78% of women do so. The average price for men is £12.17, the average price for women is £31.99 (via). Belgium has a wonderful idea to solve this problem ...

... by ignoring gender and looking at the time the hair cut consumes.

The country’s hairdressing federation, Febelhair, is advising its members to charge €1.30 (£1.10) a minute, regardless of the customer’s gender. “A distinction between prices for men and women should no longer persist in 2024,” said a Febelhair spokesperson, Charles-Antoine Huybrechts, on Belgian radio.

Charlotte Jacob, the owner of the Brussels salon De Wakko Kapper, is a fan: “We need 40 minutes for people who want a completely new cut. But whether you’re a man or a woman, you pay the same.” (via)

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photograph by William Eggleston via

The Tradwife Persona

For a great many women, tradwife is an identity. Tradwives are women who believe in what is considered as traditional gender roles usually including "hetereosexual marriage with masculine dominance and feminine subservience, child-rearing, homeschooling,  and right-wing political ideals". In his article, Proctor examines three well-known online tradwife persona: Alena Kate Pettitt (The Darling Academy), Caitlin Huber (Mrs. Midwest), and Ayla Stewart (Wife with a Purpose). 

His focus is on how forms of racism and sexism manifest in their performances to "1) establish tradwifery as a legitimate practice and form of identification, 2) illustrate how a person should act/talk/live to be considered a tradwife, and 3) establish themselves as part of a community of tradwives". 

Tradwifery is inherently sexist and explicitly anti-feminist since women are portrayed as subservient to men and feminism is attacked calling for a return to so-called traditional feminine gender roles. Many tradwives call their ideology and lifestyle "choice feminism". In other words, as the choices are made by women they are automatically declared to be feminist choices.

The decisions to stay at home “may be presented as entirely personal. However, they are inseparable from the profound crisis of both work and care under neoliberal capitalism” (Rottenberg & Orgad 2020). So those women who choose to not work are exercising a privilege to embody a traditional version of feminine gender roles, as these traditions are often “frozen moments in history arbitrarily chosen from the cultural repertoire as “the’ authentic expression of the national collective” (Christou 2020). Indeed, very likely these arbitrary historic traditions themselves are complete inventions (Hobsbawm 1992). For instance, it is a myth that women in the far past didn’t work. They were wives and mothers, but also worked the fields, brewed mead, sold and bartered goods, spun wool, and very often worked alongside guildsmen to learn a trade (Shahar 2003). By framing the woman’s role in the home as ‘traditional’, tradwives continue a long project of delegitimizing women’s contributions in the workforce as separate and less valid than the formalized economy of male labour (Milkman 2016).

While sexism is quite obvious, the link between tradwifery and racism is comparably more subtle. The movement promotes white, western heteronormative ideals of gender roles taken from white middle-class US-Americans in the 1950s. The construction of the fragile woman was something white women had access to, not Black women, as the distribution of labour was different among the Black population. The tradwife movement is not explicitly racist or extremist. However, tradwife culture is useful to white supremacists.

In 2018, Ayla Stewart (censored several times) described her site as "an online forum which brings together people interested in God's plan for happy families and wives dedicated to traditional homemaking. It also serves youth interested in an alternative to feminism and liberal ideology". While Stewart is vocal on issues of feminism and ethnicity, Caitlin Huber and Alena Kate Pettit shy away from overt statements and focus more on institutional and corporate aspects of their personas and making money.

Huber has a ‘Shop’ tab on her blog that links out to allow purchase of her “favourite things”. She does not produce these items, but in the site’s frequently asked questions, she explains: “I get ad money from YouTube from my videos, and when I do a sponsorship, I will negotiate to get paid. I also get a little money from any links that I offer to y’all from Amazon!” (Huber 2022). She is letting us know (with a colloquial “y’all”) that even though she is making money from this, she’s really just like us: a normal person, where ‘normal’ is code (for all three women) as white, middle-class, heterosexual, cisgendered, neurotypical, and able-bodied. Pettitt takes corporate agency a step further by offering her own books on ‘Traditional Lifestyle & Etiquette’—co-authored by herself and The Darling Academy—for purchase via Amazon link.

The author points out that while the concept of tradwifery clearly contains aspects of misogyny and white supremacy, not all tradwives are anti-feminists or white nationalists (Proctro, 2022).

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- Proctor, D. (2022). The #Tradwife Persona and the Rise of Radicalized White Domesticity. Persona Studies, 8(2), 7-26; link
- photograph via

The Social Meanings of Men's and Women's Hats

"Until the 1960s, the article of clothing that performed the most important role in indicating social distinctions among men was the hat. The fact that it ceased to fulfill this role in the 1960s suggests that in the nineteenth century, hats, which continued to be worn during the first half of the twentieth century, were particularly suitable for the social environment of the period. Several new types of hats appeared during the nineteenth century and were rapidly adopted at different social levels. Exactly what roles did hats perform? Because hats represented a more modest expense than jackets and coats, they provided an ideal opportunity for "blurring and transforming . . . traditional class boundaries" (Robinson 1993: 39). 

Men's hats were also used to claim and maintain, rather than to confuse, social status, as seen in the fact that specific types of hats became closely identified with particular social strata. Elaborate customs of "hat tipping" as a means of expressing deference to a man's superiors reflected the importance of the hat in marking class boundaries (McCannell 1973). Since men represented their families in public space, men's hats, rather than women's, were used to indicate the status of the family. Women's head coverings during this period were more varied and more individualized than men's (Wilcox 1945). Women's hats exemplified conspicuous consumption instead of relaying coded signals referring to social rank." (Crane, 2000)

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- Crane, D. (2000). Fashion and Its Social Agendas: Class, Gender, and Identity in Clothing, excerpt via

- photography via

Hunger has a Female Face

49,7% of the world population is female, however, women and girls make up 60% of the 309 million people extremely hungry right now. 126 million more women than men struggle securing their next meal (via). In countries facing hunger due to conflict, women often eat least sacrificing for their families. In two thirds of countries, women are more likely to report food insecurity than men. One in three women has anemia, a diet-related iron deficiency, which can damage organs if it is untreated (via).

photograph by Vivian Maier via

The Pressure to be "Beach Body Ready"

According to a survey (n = 2,000) on the so-called beach body and the stressors accompanying it, conducted by Estrid last year, 49% of respondents were worried about being "beach body ready". Two-thirds (70%) of  so-called "millennials", 66% of "Gen-Z" and one third (30%) of people aged 55 and over were concerned about being "beach body ready".

The sample was asked what the main concerns were; here some answers: pressure to look and feel physically fit (52%), generally feeling "beach body ready" (49%), pressure to remove body hair (48%), enhancing the grooming regime (47%).

The reasons why people felt the need to remove body hair for the beach were: to feel cleaner (22%), feeling insecure when showing body hair (11%), increased confidence through shaving (11%), the feeling to be judged by others if they don't remove body hair (9%).

The most pressure was felt from friends (20%), peers of similar age (20%), social media (17%), and social media influencers (10%) (via). Enjoy your summer!

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photograph by Gary Winogrand via

Homosociality, Homohysteria and Orthodox Masculinities

Abstract: There is limited research about homosociality and physical tactility between men in the early to middle decades of the twentieth century. This research utilizes 27 in-depth interviews with heterosexual British men aged between 65 and 91 in order to explore their masculinity and homosociality, then and today. Participants were interviewed about (1) their recollections of masculinity and same-sex friendships aged 18; (2) their awareness of, and attitudes towards, homosexuality at this age; and (3) their current views regarding today’s heterosexual male’s gendered behaviours, inclusive of their kissing, cuddling and loving other men. 

Results show that men born between 1924 and 1951 lived in absence of, or desire for, homosocial affection. Even today they look upon the display of inclusive masculinities by today’s male youth with disdain. We suggest that their antipathy towards homosociality is reflective of elevated cultural homophobia and homohysteria of their youths. Anderson & Fidler, 2018)

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- Anderson, E. & Fidler, C. O. (2018). Journal of Gender Studies, 27(3), link
- photograph by Paul McDonough (New York City, 1975) via